"Me too."
Then she turned to slide her keys into the succession of locks and pushed it open. The warm sound of the record player coaxing soft chords from a guitar washed over her.
Mi-rae smiled as she lowered her bag and purse to the floor and slid off her heels. Her husband's sonic inquiry into her college fling had bloomed into a growing appreciation for the bands that had served as the soundtrack to commuting to work on the subway and raucous evenings out in her twenties. Every night she came home to a different album playing on the record console; a new book from her shelf folded on the coffee table; fruit in bowls and flowers from the market in vases; torn pages from Time Out affixed to the refrigerator with events circled in bold black marker. Everything around Ji-pyeong was to be explored and savored. His sabbatical had grown into an archeological inquiry into life.
"Loki no! I said get out of here!"
Mi-rae's hands flew to her mouth at the sound of Ji-pyeong's exasperation. She padded quietly across the living room to poke her head around to the galley kitchen.
Oh my god.
Ji-pyeong was standing at the counter. He was wearing a bright red apron over a rolled up black linen button down and jeans. His arms were covered in flour and his head was bent over in concentration as he kneaded a large mass of dough. Bowls, open packages, and mixing spoons were strewn across the counter. Loki was perched just next to his workspace, his head dipping in daring investigation.
Her teeth gathered her lower lip into her mouth at the sight of him. And so Mi-rae folded her arms and leaned against the refrigerator. Her eyes indulged undetected in tracing the shape of his dark hair down to the clean black line it drew across his neck. Then her eyes wandered along the long cord of muscle tensing over and over as his hands worked at the dough. Veins contracted and expanded in his hands dusted white as dough bloomed through the spaces above his knuckles. The red canvas apron was tied snuggly around his waist,inviting her arms to follow suit.
"Happy Friday. I come bearing rosé."
Ji-pyeong's head whipped around in an instant. Mi-rae raised the bottle in the air and grinned. And then those dimples welcomed her home. Ji-pyeong turned around to face her as she set the wine down on the counter. And then his dimples deepened even further as she crossed the narrow space towards him. He raised his hands in the air to make space for her to slide her arms around him. Ji-pyeong lowered his head down closer to her.
"Hi."
The word reverberated against her rib cage as his eyes lit up with fondness. Her belly did that flip.
"Hi."
Ji-pyeong raised his hands even higher in the air.
"Careful, I'm going to get flour all over you."
Mi-rae lifted herself up onto her tiptoes as a smile tugged further up the corners of his beautiful pink mouth.
"I'll take my chances."
His eyebrow challenged her playfully as she continued to slink her way up. Mi-rae pressed a chaste kiss to his lips and then rolled back on to her heels. Ji-pyeong lowered his hands down to the counter on either side of his hips and leaned back. His eyes ticked down the length of her and back up to her face.
"I missed you today."
Ji-pyeong said that every day. But the way that he looked at her despite the mere passage of ten hours filled Mi-rae with a warming certainty that Ji-pyeong meant it every time.
"I missed you too." Her fingers tugged at his apron. "You should always wear this."
A puff of amusement accompanied a quirk of his mouth.
August 18, 2023
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